Edinburgh 21 – 12 Cardiff Blues
Cardiff Blues missed out on a golden opportunity to put clear daylight between themselves and fellow strugglers Newport Gwent Dragons and Scarlets when returning from Murrayfield empty handed in a Magners League clash.
With only three Welsh sides guaranteed Heineken Cup places next season, the Dragons and Scarlets find themselves at the wrong end of the points table. With the big freeze ensuring Paul Turner and Nigel Davies’s men had a weekend off, the Bluess had a great chance to pull clear of their rivals but they still remain near the bottom of the table after failing to secure even a losing bonus point.
The Blues opened the scoring in the fifth minute through an easy Ceri Sweeney penalty but the visitors weren’t in front long as Chris Paterson evened things up two minutes later with a well struck shot at goal.
Seven minutes later Paterson added his second success of the day but that was soon cancelled out by Sweeney to make the score 6-6 after 23 minutes.
Thereafter it was all Edinburgh as the home side battered away at the Blues defence. Paul Tito’s men did their best to contain the home side but winger Tim Visser and backrower Roddy Grant softened the Blues up with a couple of timely runs before impressive Ross Rennie touched down close to the posts after fly half Rory Hutton sold Leigh Halfpenny a dummy to put the flanker over. With Paterson’s conversion Edinburgh went in at the break 13-6 ahead.
If the Blues were to claw their way back into the contest they needed to re-start brightly but it was the home side which scored first. Visser was again prominent, sending over fellow winger Jim Thompson.
With 20 minutes remaining Halfpenny gave the Blues a chink of light with a long range penalty to reduce Edinburgh’s lead to 18-9.
Edinburgh nerves started to jangle when replacement flanker Fraser McKenzie was yellow carded. Sweeney missed the resulting penalty but he quickly atoned for that miss with a penalty in the 66th minute to cut the Scots side lead to six points.
But just as it looked like the Blues were inching their way back into the contest, they conceded another penalty in front of the posts which Paterson slammed over to put Edinburgh two scores ahead with 10 minutes remaining.
Edinburgh were reduced to 13 men when Grant was binned with four minutes remaining but Dai Flanagan failed to bring the Blues within bonus point territory when he fluffed two late shots at goal.
The defeat was the Blues fifth away league defeat of the season and ensures the fight for Heineken Cup places will go down to the wire for the Dragons, Blues and Scarlets.
